Hola Knockout fans and welcome to this week’s Impact Write-Up. This week sees the return of our Knockouts Champion Brooke, who has pretty much been MIA for a few weeks now. She is scheduled to put her title on the line in a match against Velvet Sky this week despite any valid explanation. Let’s just go with it being a reward for helping Gail Kim trap Taryn Terrell backstage last week. We also find out whether or not TNA President Dixie Carter will give her former business partner Jeff Jarrett the full control of running Impact Wrestling on a regular basis.
As both Knockouts make their way to the ring for this championship match, Josh Mathews recaps Velvet’s involvement of Gail Kim’s attack towards Taryn, along with a statement from the Dollhouse headmistress, in which she vows for revenge towards her attackers for destroying her hand through the help of a newer and stronger Dollhouse. That sure is needed after Gail single handily defeated them twice in a row.
Back to our Knockouts title match, both women open the contest with some friendly sportsmanship by shaking hands. After the friendly gesture, the two tie up, Velvet getting the better of Brooke and applying a headlock to the champion. Velvet follows up by ramming Brooke’s face to one corner turnbuckle and then another on the opposite side of the ring. After whipping Brooke to the ropes for an incoming clotheslines, Velvet goes for the cover but only gets a two count.
Velvet whips Brooke to the ropes once again but Brooke leaps on to the second rope this time and hits a diving clothesline to Velvet. Now it’s Brooke who goes for the pin but she only gets a count of one as Velvet quickly kicks out.
The two trade blows at the nearest turnbuckle until Brooke manages to surprise Velvet with a Russian Leg Sweep. Brooke goes another pin but falls short of the three count yet again. The offense from Brooke keep coming as she corners Velvet once more but this only allows Velvet to regain control of the match when she shoves Brooke off of her from the second rope.
Velvet lands a combination of kicks to Brooke’s head and takes down the champion with a running neck breaker. When a cover by Velvet only gets a two count, Velvet tries to weaken Brooke with forearm shots to Brooke but the champion finds a way to fight back with a forearm of her own. The two exchange blows and both go down when they each land a running face crusher to one another!
It’s a close race as to who will be able to get back on her feet first but it’s Brooke who manages to out do Velvet in the end by kicking her in the midsection and tossing her to the outside of the ring. Seconds later, Brooke joins her opponent after Velvet pulls Brooke to the outside with intentions of sending on a trip to the steel steps. However, things do go accordingly to Velvet’s plan as Brooke reverses Velvet’s Irish whip to the steel steps.
Brooke tosses Velvet back in to the ring but before the champion can enter the ring, the match comes to an end when Dollhouse members Jade and Marti Bell attack Brooke from behind resulting in the referee to call for the bell for a DQ. With Brooke taken out of the picture outside the ring, the Dollhouse begin to work on Velvet next. They enter the ring and stomp all over Velvet only coming to a pause Rebel runs in from backstage to make the save…. or so we think.
Instead of even up the odds against the Dollhouse, Rebel joins them in beating down Velvet when she kicks Velvet from behind. The trio then position Velvet to the big screen where an image of Taryn Terrell speaks to Velvet. From the pillow talk room, Taryn tells Velvet that she made the biggest mistake of getting involved with them.
Taryn continues by stating that the Dollhouse will only get stronger with the newest member Rebel joining them. As Taryn disappears from the screen, the three on one attack to Velvet continues ending with latest member of the Dollhouse Rebel landing her split leg drop to the weaken Velvet. The three DFF stand tall at the end of the night, fully cementing Rebel’s Heel turn.
In out next Knockouts bit, the time has come to reveal the results of 2016 Knockouts Calender cover girl poll. Fair warning, the results will shock you! We turn over to the commentary room where Josh Matthews and The Pope reveal that Gail Kim, Brooke and Velvet Sky will all grace the cover together! So…. what the hell was the point of having a poll!? To get a supposed 250K clicks on Impact’s website? Eh, congrats ladies I suppose.
Madame Dixie Carter closes our show this week and she’s made her mind regarding a new leader. (After all, we know for SURE that Bully Ray isn’t coming back) Dixie opens her speech by talking about how successful businesses are when their leadership works as a team. *AHEM* She also expresses how happy she was when Jarrett returned to TNA this summer season and would like for him to join her in the ring.
Jarrett finds his way to the six sided ring and starts off by thanking Dixie for her kind words. He goes on to say that the future for TNA and GFW is a win for both of them but a bigger win for the fans. Both authority figures agree that the momentum is growing for the next chapter between the two companies and just as Dixie was ready to appoint Jeff as this new needed leader for TNA, a bombshell!
Mic in hand, Drew Galloway interrupts Dixie to announce he has evidence to share with the wrestling world about the recent attacks that have been happening in the Impact Zone. While he is all for healthy competition, a dark cloud still hangs over the Impact Zone. Detective Galloway accuses Jarrett behind the recent backstage attacks after running the plates of the get away car that were near by the attacks, a car registered under Jarrett’s name!
Jeff denies any wrong doing, swearing on his family he did nothing! Seconds later another bombshell! From the entrance ramp, wife Karen Jarrett has a mic and reveals she was the one behind the attacks! She claims she did for her husband and their GFW family!
Although Jeff never asked his wife to get involved, Karen felt her husband deserves to be the leader of the company he found! She finishes off, throwing daggers at Dixie through her eyes by stating that sometimes one little spark can cause a gigantic inferno!
Jeff takes his wife’s words in and lands a cheap shot to Drew from behind. With that, the rest of the Jarrets’ GFW roster, including Lei’D Tapa, join their leaders to take down Drew and the likes of TNA stars Rockstar Spud, Robbie E and the Wolves when they try and make the save. Dixie is in disbelief, shocker, at what has happened!
Thoughts: Two Heel turns in one night is certainly a topic of discussion.
Starting off with Rebel’s Heel turn, I was actually getting into the Knockouts title match before the Dollhouse interfered. It was such a relief to see Brooke on our screens again as she has really was becoming an after thought after being off television despite being the champion! The match was moving at a decent pace but it’s never fun when we are thrown random title matches. Sure it was used to set up for Rebel’s Heel turn but some kind of backstage segment as to how/why Velvet was getting this title shot would’ve helped spark a bit more interest.
As random as the title match was, I also found Rebel’s Heel turn to be random as well. Last time we’ve actually seen Rebel on Impact television, she was getting a brawl beat down from the Dollhouse, so why would she join her attackers? Brooke left her alone in said beat down so would it not have made more sense for Brooke? There would have been a motive for Rebel to turn but she didn’t even acknowledge Brooke and went straight to Velvet instead. Again, here is where some kind of pre-taped backstage segment would help fill in the gaps.
With word of Taryn being injured, it does help to have a new member to join the Dollhouse to freshen up the group but to suggest that they are now stronger feels farfetched. The group desperately need to recover after losing to Gail Kim cleanly twice but is Rebel the answer? She is the least experienced Knockout on TNA’s current roster, so to suggest that they are now stronger with Rebel joining them doesn’t exactly fit with their choice of threatening words. Jade is still the group’s greatest wrestler, so I fully expect her to do most of the heavy lifting from here on out.
Still, I’m very glad to see Rebel turn Heel. She has been lost in the shuffle, more so when the Menagerie unofficially broke up. This allows her to get her feet wet and build more character, which she’s been lacking. I look forward to seeing how she interacts with Jade and Marti.
As for Karen and her team turning Heel, I’m glad the twist was that she was behind the attacks with the motive of gaining control over TNA instead of Jeff blankly manipulating Dixie for control.
Speaking of Dixie, how many times has she now lost control over her company? While Heel Dixie from last summer wasn’t exactly the best, she at least had more backbone over this naive Face Dixie. This only sets up for another big stable war in TNA again and this time it’ll involve GFW, who we have admit is the real winner in this “partnership”. Jarrett gets free ad on TNA’s TV time while TNA is just biding time with a summer storyline. Just keep your head high darling, you’ll get through this as well!
